Internet browser navigation, typically referred to as “Web surfing” in the art, is well known as a mechanism enabling user access to server-stored electronic information pages on a navigable network such as the Internet network. A typical user navigating the Internet for example may be subscribed to many password-protected Web sites that offer some form of service to the user. Examples of password-protected sites may include financial service sites such as investment, mortgage, and online banking sites, travel sites, certain entertainment and music sites, news service and information sites, and so on.
Typically, a user will have a variety of different passwords and/or personal identification numbers (PIN) that must be provided to successfully log in to many of the types of sites described above. As a result, a user is frequently required to enter login information as new password protected sites or pages are navigated to. A Web browsing session embarked to conduct a large chunk of Web business, for example, may involve several logins during one Internet session. Having to remember many passwords and PIN numbers can be problematic for a user.
One way to deal with this problematic scenario that is known to the inventor has been to aggregate and manage a user portfolio of passwords and other login information at a secure proxy/portal location such that automated aggregation and automated logins, when required are performed using the appropriate stored passwords from the user profile. Although this method is secure and fairly error free, some users are never the less uncomfortable having a third party manage their security passwords and other critical information.
In prior art, a federated convention known as domain name service (DNS) exists that provides a look-up service for IP addresses on a network for navigating purposes. The service finds an IP address for a querying machine. The IP address is a temporary network address comprising numbers separated by dots. IP addresses are both allocated and assigned depending on the type of use and class of the address. Every desktop machine and network server capable of TCP/IP communication has DNS software installed. A client machine that is transient will retain the same IP address only while it is logged on to the Internet during a single network session. While DNS system can identify a specific machine during a multi-site browsing session, it cannot provide any specific user information.
It has occurred to the inventor that if the host of a password protected or otherwise secure Web site or Web function could identify a user remotely by knowing the user ID at a level that is more granular than the IP address and could validate the state of a current session from a reliable source, then it could gain efficiency by servicing the user as logged in
Therefore, what is clearly needed in the art is a distributable user verification system and service that can authenticate user to site hosts along any navigation sequence and enable the user to avoid repeated login procedures that may have otherwise been required along the navigated route.